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Rarest Animals With Superpowers · Be Amazed

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: With characters like Batman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine, some of the most famous superheroes are named after animals, possessing powers that are inspired by the insane abilities found in the animal kingdom.
• 0:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes though, Mother Nature beats out the comic books with certain rare creatures possessing astounding abilities that can rival iconic superheroes.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: From shapeshifters to spiderbird hybrids today, we're going to put on our capes and fly through some
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: unusual animals with real superpowers, animals, a symbol.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: To a predatory snake or bird, the hairy frog looks like the perfect meal, a large tasty amphibian with no visible defenses.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: The critter found throughout Central Africa looks like easy pickings, but unfortunately for the predator, this prey packs a punch.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: When the hairy frog is threatened, it turns into a monster, breaking its own finger bones and pushing them through its skin, giving itself retractable claws.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Remind you of anyone?
• 1:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's right, the creature is also known as the Wolverine frog.
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Its retractable bone claws closely resembling the X man's superpower.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's more experts believe that once the frog has fended off predators and retracted its claws, its body can quickly regenerate the damage tissue, getting ready for the next fight.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if all of that wasn't Wolverine enough for you, this incredibly evolutionarily distinct amphibian also looks the part sporting sideburns that would make Hugh Jackman blush.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unlike Wolverine, the frog doesn't just use its mutton chops to stylishly warm its cheeks.
• 1:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: these hair-like strands actually contain thin arteries, and the blood running through them helps the frog to absorb oxygen while it's underwater so it can stay underneath the surface for extended periods of time.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Somebody call up Kevin Feige, if we can get this little frog dude and add a mantium skeleton, I think we have the MCU's new Wolverine casting.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: When it comes to singing, the best humanity has to offer our opera singers and a Dell.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: But compared to the Liarbird, our sopranos are incredibly basic.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: This songbird possessing the most complex voice in the animal kingdom.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's abilities of mimicry in particular are truly astounding.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: When the Liarbird sings, it uses its exceptional hearing memory and a sound producing organ called a syringe to imitate almost anything that it's heard before.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're known to mimic other birds, chainsaws, construction sites, car alarms, and camera shutters.
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Talk about range!
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, lierbirds don't use their powers for the greater good.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: They use them to get lucky.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody loves a pop star, and the more songs the male lierbird has in its set list, the more impressive they are to a female.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: The crewner with the largest collection of songs finding the most success.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to see a lierbird live in concert, then you've got to travel down under.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: because these creatures only live in Australia.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: But hey, maybe one day they'll go on a world tour.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to fight crime, you've got to be willing to throw a few punches, and this next creature has just a hands-for-the-job.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: This next little boxer-looking critter might float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, but it's actually an American whip spider, a real-life cave monster that uses its long arms to hunt crickets, cockroaches, small lizards, and hummingbirds.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead of fist, the boxer has thorn-like protrusions at the end of each arm, allowing it to pierce its prey from a safe distance, throwing punches like Mr.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fantastic.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, these long arm terrors are non-venomists making them pretty harmless to humans.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: That being said, if you mess with the whip spider, it won't hesitate to throw hands.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's stay on spiders, exploring an arachnid's answer to Aquaman.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: The diving bell spider is the only arachnid that lives almost entirely underwater, sleeping, hunting, mating, and laying eggs underneath the surface.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite its watery habitat, the spider doesn't have gills.
• 4:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, it lives inside a bubble of air, traveling across the riverbed in a homemade submarine.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Building this bubble base is pretty easy.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: First, the spider heads to the riverbed and spins a dome-shaped web anchored to plants.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: It then heads to the surface for a breather, and as it dives back underwater air is trapped between its tiny abdominal hairs, creating a bubble that wraps around the shape of its body.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: The spider then transports the air to the web and releases it within the dome, the bubble getting trapped at the bottom of the river.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The spider repeats the process a few times until the bubbles connect, creating an underwater base with an air supply that will last for about a day.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: When the oxygen supply and the bubble starts to dwindle, all the spider has to do is swim back up the surface, collect more air, and top up the base.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: At just 0.7 inches in size, this aquatic architect of a spider largely eats mosquito larvae and tiny crustaceans called Daphnea.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Grabbing its prey out of the water before dragging them back to the bubble base to feed.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: As impressive as all that is, it's a harsh truth to reveal to a rack no fobs.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even underwater, you can't get away from spiders.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure the diving bell spider loves living underwater, but if the arachnid ever wants to move to a home on dry land, I know just the bug that can build it.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bagworm-moth caterpillar is part insect, part architect.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: The creepy crawlies able to construct themselves elaborate wearable homes.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bagworms building skills are incredibly rare in nature.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: The critters using sticks, seeds, soil, and leaves to make their luxury log cabin homes on their own backs.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: The building materials are stuck together with the bagworm silk.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: The critters silk webbing being far stronger, stickier, and more flexible than the kind produced by spiders.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: These patchwork outfits start with the smallest bits, which are pushed upward over time as larger pieces are attached in, act as camouflage, hiding the mini marines from the birds and insects that hunt them.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: When male bagworms grow into mods, they develop wings, leaving their shelters and flying away to mate.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the females, it's important that the camouflage jackets work well, because they stay in the outfits for their entire lives.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Working on their shelters from the moment that they're born as larva, to the day they die as moths.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some people are such home bodies.
• 6:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: From one camouflage critter to another, leaf insects are nature's shape-shifters, a family of 50 different species that look and act exactly like different types of leaves.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: They say you are what you eat, and the insects spend their days lying on plants and munching on leaves, their camouflage making them near invisible to predators.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even when the leaf insects go on the move, they're nearly impossible to spot, the creature shaking their body to mimic a real leaf being blown by the wind.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: This marvelous mimicry is all down to billions of years of evolution.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The insects that were born with mutations that left them closely resembling leaves were less likely to get eaten by predators, allowing them to survive and reproduce, passing down their leafy traits.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: As generations of these insects were born, the more closely they resembled leaves, the better, traits like leaf-shaped bodies, and even having the appearance of fake bite marks like real leaves, eventually resulting in the astounding marvels we can observe today.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the marvels we can observe if we squint super hard.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Next up, we have an incredible squid with the power of invisibility.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: This little magician has been identified as a sepio-toothed squid.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the few types of squid that can turn transparent when threatened or startled, vanishing into thin air whenever a predator tries to attack it.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: The invisible woman got her powers in a cosmic storm, but the origins behind the Cepiotoothis Squid Superpower are in itself.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: The squid skin is covered in chromatophores, pigments sacks that the squid can expand and contract it will.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: When the sacks are expanded, they cover the squid's entire body and dark pigment.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, if the squid is threatened, it can contract the pigment sacs, shrinking them down to remove the coloration from its skin, and render itself see-through.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Better get Kevin Feige back on the line.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: We've got the fantastic 4's new Sue Storm.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Hollywood, superheroes are typically tall, dashing, and absolutely ripped.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a result, this next superhuman animal probably won't be getting a call up to the Avengers, unless there's suddenly a need of an ugly little translucent bug that's bursting with its own poop.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: This larval cereal leaf beetle may look like it's filled with worms, but the strange, squiggly blobs on its back are actually its fecal shield, a layer of armor that's made out of its own poop.
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The beetle larvae's armor may not be as shiny as Iron Man's, but it's almost as effective the pooper power protecting the critter from all sorts of predators.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: This defense mechanism is also used by other larvae in the leaf beetle family.
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: The critters able to build up their defenses every time they drop a doose.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, how does this fecal shield provide protection?
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, imagine going to your favorite Italian restaurant, and finding your spaghetti is seasoned with tiny turds.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: You'd probably leave and go somewhere else, right?
• 9:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, likewise, if a predator tries to eat the fecal beetle, all it'll get is a mouthful of foul tasting poop, encouraging it to leave, find something else to eat, and leave a terrible yelp review.
• 10:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite its underwhelming name, the common basilisk is a miracle lizard that can walk, or more accurately run on water.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It can sprint over rivers and lakes at up to 15 miles per hour,
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: like some kind of jogging Jesus.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Basilisk lives in the rainforests of Central America and South America, generally hanging around river banks and streams.
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: If a land predator tries to attack them, the Basilisk simply head for the water, evading any means of capture and presumably thoroughly bamboosling their predators.
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Basilisk Superpowered doesn't all come down to its speed.
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: The lizard possesses a unique set of long toes and claws, and as it moves across the water, it uses them to paddle at the surface, creating little pockets of air that keep it afloat.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: If the Basilisk manages to keep the speed up, it can stay afloat for around 65 feet, more than enough distance to escape a hungry snake, or provide it with a spectacular show.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The crab eater seal is fluffy and friendly, until you open its mouth, which is filled with gnarly teeth that serve a very specific purpose.
• 11:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: But not what you might think, in a classic case of false advertising, the crab eater seal doesn't eat crab at all, its name actually originating from the German word Krebs, which refers to all crustaceans.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: The crab eaters primary prey are tiny crustaceans called krill, and their method of hunting all comes down to their terrifying teeth.
• 11:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a crab eaters seal swims around the Antarctic coast, it uses its inner locking teeth like a spaghetti strainer, opening its mouth wide and taking in a mouthful of sea water and krill.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: It then pushes the seawater out through the gaps in its teeth, filtering out its dinner.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: At this point the criller trapped and the seals left with a mouthful of food.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: That isn't till a leopard seal comes along and turns the adorable crab eater seal into a mouthful of food of its own.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: so it goes.
• 12:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Next up, calling somebody a doorhead sounds like an insult, but doorheaded ants take pride in their anatomy, blocking the entrance to their nest with their gigantic heads.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: When this ant was first discovered, scientists believed that it was an entirely new rare species.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, they later discovered that it's a type of soldier ant in the cephaloats family evolved for the task of protecting the colony.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: A cephalote's nest is an exclusive club and over millions of years of evolution, these soldiers have become incredible bouncerers.
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: They use their thick and saucer-like heads to plug the entrances to their tree branch nest, blocking entry for any invasive ant or predator that tries to sneak inside.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Within a colony, the size of the soldier ants' heads are relatively uniform as are the nest entry holes, ensuring that their heads are all big enough to block off and disguise the entrance.
• 13:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: This defense is called Frag Moses, and if you ask me, it's one of the strangest examples of specific role-related evolution I've ever seen.
• 13:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: All these bouncer's need now are black polo shirts, shaved heads and earpieces, and they'll be ready to open a cephalote nightclub.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Elephants are famous for their super-powered size, strength, and excellent memories.
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, the species has another special superpower to lepathy kinda.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Infersound waves are sound waves with a frequency so low that humans can't hear them.
• 13:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Elephants can use their deep, husky voices to communicate via infersound, their giant vocal cords allowing them to create these low frequencies.
• 13:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: They can then emit the infersound towards the ground causing low frequency rumbles that travel over six miles before being received through another elephant's feed.
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ultra-sensitive nerve cells in the elephant's feet pick up on these vibrations allowing them to receive information from another elephant without even needing to use their ears.
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though, of course, those huge ears can also detect in for sound if close enough.
• 14:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: These sounds are usually imperceptible to humans, however, there are cases of zoo workers reporting feeling the infersound vibrating through the air, able to sense the creatures communicating without hearing it.
• 14:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although nobody knows for sure what elephants are saying over infersound, experts believe that it's probably used to coordinate group movements or to find a mate over long distances.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: kind of like a big grey rumbly trunk swinging version of Tinder.
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although technically elephants are just making a noise that's too deep for us to hear, the use of infrasound communication is pretty much the closest thing to telepathy in the animal kingdom, aside from the near supernaturally coordinated electromagnetic hive minds of B colonies.
• 14:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Regardless, elephants can rest easy, knowing they're able to whisper sweet nothings into each other's feet without humans listening in.
• 15:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now Batman is one of the most iconic superheroes of all time, and his gadgets and vehicles are so awesome that it's easy to forget that the Caped Crusader is really just a mussely rich guy who likes playing dress up.
• 15:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Batman may be a glorified furry, but that doesn't mean that real bats don't possess very real superpowers.
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: The horseshoe bat is named after the shape of its nose, it's snout like into a horseshoe, or, if you ask me, a pastramy sandwich.
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like many bats, this pastramy sandwich bat has terrible eyesight, which is a good thing considering their ugly faces.
• 15:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: It also explains their use of echo location, a method of seeing with your ears.
• 15:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: When echo locating a bat will release an ultrasonic beam through a series of clicks.
• 15:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: It'll then listen to how the beam bounces off the walls and objects around it, essentially allowing it to build a mental map of its surroundings using its ears.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Most bats send these sonar beams through their mouths, but the horseshoe sends them through its special nose, making the beam more focused and accurate.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bats live in dark caves across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, and their special nose helps them to hunt beetles, moths, and crane flies like Bruce Wayne hunts criminals in total darkness.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you think of big, strong superheroes
• 16:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: These little guys might not be fighting off any supervillains, but it turns out baby ducks have a set of incredible superpowers that help them survive until adulthood.
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ducklings famously follow their moms wherever they go.
• 16:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, baby ducks can't fly, so whenever mom takes flight, her ducklings need to get creative.
• 16:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: If the mother duck flies up somewhere high, her kids will climb after her, using their beaks and claws on their feet to scale sheer walls and cliff faces like spider-man.
• 17:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It takes a bit of trial and error, but the ducklings are so light that they can easily
• 17:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: What goes up must come down.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when their mother flies down to lower ground, the baby ducks follow her with a leap of faith, plummeting straight towards the floor.
• 17:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ducklings can comfortably fall from up to 50 feet, as they're so incredibly lightweight that their maximum falling speed is far slower than other heavier animals.
• 17:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: They reach their low terminal velocity quickly, and hit the ground with very little force allowing them to bounce off the floor and safely walk away.
• 17:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Talk about a superhero landing.
• 17:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The lastly comic books are full of muscle-bound monsters, superheroes that save the day by picking up cars and hoax mashing the bad guys.
• 17:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the animal kingdom, the strongest superhero may not be a hulk, but it's definitely incredible.
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Studies have demonstrated that the mighty Dung Beetle is able to push 1,141 times its own body weight, the equivalent of an average person pushing 6 double-decker buses full of people.
• 18:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: So what does the Dung Beetle do with all this super strength?
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, instead of lifting buses and saving the world, the Beetle uses its powers to move its favorite food source.
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: POOP!
• 18:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: My mom always told me not to play with my food, but when tongue beetles find a pile of poop, they roll it into a large ball and play a bit of soccer.
• 18:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: The tongue beetles move their tongue balls to protect themselves from predators, transporting their tongue out of the open, and bearing it underground a safely eat later.
• 18:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite literally eating poop, the tongue beetles are fussy eaters, carefully smelling and picking through the tongue ball, only eating the poop particles with the highest concentrations of nutrients like nitrogen.
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: While tongue beetles are generally accepted as the strongest animals alive relative to their size, some netizens have pointed out that tongue beetles only roll their poop balls scarcely actually lifting the weight.
• 19:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: This technique differs from ants who regularly work as a team to lift huge weights over their heads, like this little squad, working together to carry shrimp up a pole.
• 19:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ants have been observed carrying food that weights up to 20 times their own body weight, the equivalent of an average American man picking up a large giraffe and carrying it home for dinner.
• 19:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: This feed of strength is incredibly impressive, but an ant colony does most of their heaviest lifting as a team, their individual strength paling and comparison to the mighty Dung beetles.
• 19:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: But whether your team ant or team beetle, the power that both of these critters possess is insanely impressive.
• 19:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Proving that you don't need protein shakes, tank tops, or tribal tattoos to pump some serious iron.
• 20:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you were assembling a team of superheroes, which of our superpowered animals would you choose?
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening.